General Discussion

You can save all the money you want, but unless you are in public employment and have access to a pension and a 403b or are a high-paid professional like a doctor or a lawyer, financial security for never-married women is a pipedream and always will be. It is all by design.

There are things that happen during one's life including job/career loss and health issues, both of which can wipe out a lifetime of savings. There is also age discrimination, which is rampant past age 50. I know this from personal experience. "Owning" a house is basically out of reach for never-married women unless they belong to one of the categories mentioned above or have an inheritance from parents or other relatives. Marriage is still the primary means for upward mobility for women in our society.

Our country heavily subsidizes marriage and the lifestyle that goes with it. This is most glaringly obvious in tax laws and especially Social Security benefits. Women who have been widowed and those divorced who have been married at least 10 years can get full survivor benefits from their deceased husbands or ex-husbands. This can be very substantial, certainly in comparison to most women's SS benefits from working. All they did is literally trade sex to get the bennies in the first place. Never-married women have access to nothing but their own earnings, which typically pale compared to men's. I know mine are a fraction of what women I know who have been married get. That isn't right at all.